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MARCH EIGHTEENTH 
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THE 

GROVER CLEVELAND 

MEMORIAL 

MARCH 18, 1909 




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THE 

GROVER CLEVELAND 

MEMORIAL 



THE EIGHTEENTH OF MARCH 

IN THE YEAR ONE THOUSAND 

NINE HUNDRED AND NINE 



CARNEGIE HALL 

THURSDAY AFTERNOON AT THREE O'CLOCK 

COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

THURSDAY EVENING AT EIGHT-FIFTEEN O'CLOCK 



NEW YORK 

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^ CLEVELAND MEMORIAL COMMITTEES 



OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES 

FRANCIS LYNDE STETSON . Chairman 

DeLANCEY NICOLL . . . Secretary 

PAUL MORTON .... Treasurer 

Members ex-ofBcio of all committees 

Executive Committee 

E. C. benedict, Chairman 
WILLIAM A. COAKLEY MORGAN J. O'BRIEN 

GEORGE HARVEY FRANCIS KEY PENDELTON 

W. M. LAFFAN ISIDOR STRAUS 

Finance Committee 

HERMAN RIDDER, Chairman PATRICK F. McGOWAN 

HERMAN A. METZ WHITELAW REID 

EGERTON L. WINTHROP, Jr. 

Committee on Public Exercises 

JOSEPH D. BRYANT, Chairman JOHN H. FINLEY 

LYMAN ABBOTT RICHARD WATSON GILDER 

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER THOMAS HASTINGS, Jk. 

JOHN G. CARLISLE GEORGE F. PARKER 

WILLIAM E. CURTIS WILLIAM M. SLOANE 

Committee on Press and Publication 

RICHARD WATSON GILDER, Chairman 
ST. CLAIR McKELWAY ADOLPH S. OCHS 

* Committee on Permanent Memorial 

ANDREW CARNEGIE, Chairman CHARLES S. FAIRCHILD 

EDWARD D. ADAMS JOHN G. MILBURN 

EDWARD R. BACON FRANK D. MILLET 

JOSEPH D. BRYANT PETER B. OLNEY 

JOHN L. CADWALADER ALTON B. PARKER 

JOSEPH H. CHOATE WILLIAM F. SHEEHAN 

HENRY F. DIMOCK EDWARD M. SHEPARD 

* THE COMMITTEE ON PERMANENT MEMOEIAL IN DUE SEASON "WILL 
DECIDE EEGAEDING THE FORM OF AN APPROPRIATE MEMOEIAL 
AND WILL COMMUNICATE WITH THE PUBLIC 
AS TO SUITABLE PROVISION THEREFOR 



CONTENTS 
CARNEGIE HALL 

PAGB 

Oeder of Exercises xiii 

The Rev. Dr.William Rogers Richards, Invocation 3 

Mayor McClellan 6 

Governor Hughes 10 

Richard Watson Gilder 18 

Chief Justice Fuller 23 

President Taft 28 

Colonel Roosevelt, Letter 38 

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Schulman, Benediction . 41 

THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

Order of Exercises 44 

Edward M. Shepard 45 

Mayor McClellan 47 

Senator Root 49 

Judge Gray 53 

William B. Hornblower 65 

The Rev. Father Quinn, S. J 73 



PORTRAITS 



GROVER CLEVELAND (1903) Frontispiece 

THE REV. DR. WILLIAM ROGERS RICHARDS . facing page 3 



FRANCIS LYNDE STETSON . . . . 

MAYOR McCLELLAN 

GOVERNOR HUGHES 

RICHARD WATSON GILDER . . . . 

CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER 

PRESIDENT TAFT 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

THE REV. DR. SAMUEL SCHULMAN 
GROVER CLEVELAND (1892) . . . 

EDWARD M. SHEPARD 

SENATOR ROOT 

JUDGE GRAY 

WILLIAM B. HORNBLOWER . . . . 



4 
6 
10 
18 
23 
28 
38 
41 
43 
45 
49 
53 
65 



Notice for the meeting at Carnegie Hall 



THE MEMORIAL CEREMONIES 

■9 

MAYOR McCLELLAN WILL PRESIDE 

ADDRESSES WILL BE MADE BY 

PRESIDENT TAFT, BY CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER AND BY GOVERNOR HUGHES 

MR. RICHARD WATSON GILDER WILL READ A POEM 

THE INVOCATION WILL BE OFFERED BY THE REVEREND DOCTOR 

WILLIAM ROGERS RICHARDS 

AND THE BENEDICTION WILL BE PRONOUNCED BY 

THE REVEREND DOCTOR SAMUEL SCHULMAN 

MR. WALTER DAMROSCH WITH HIS ORCHESTRA, SUPPLEMENTED BY 

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY VOICES OF THE LIEDERKRANZ SOCIETY, 

WILL PROVIDE THE MUSIC 

THE EXIGENCIES OF PREPARATION FOR THE EVENT REQUIRE THAT 

DELAY IN ACCEPTANCE BE REGARDED AS A DECLINATION 

DkLANCEY NICOLL, 

Secretarv- 





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ORDER OF EXERCISES 

1 Fiineral March from "Die Gotterdammerung" . Wagner 

ORCHESTRA 

2 Meeting called to order by the Chairman of the Committee 

3 Invocation. The Reverend Doctor WiUiam Rogers Richards 
^ Hymn Largo Handel 

CHORUS AND ORGAN 

5 Introductory Remarks . The Chairman of the Committee 

6 Address The Mayor 

7 Address The Governor 

8 Andante from Fifth Symphony Beethoven 

ORCHESTRA 

9 Poem Richard Watson Gilder 

10 Address . . . The Chief Justice of the United States 

1 1 Address .... The President of the United States 

12 Sacred Song . "The Heavens Proclaim" . Beethoven 

CHORUS AND ORCHESTRA 

13 Benediction . The Reverend Doctor Samuel Schulman 

The New York Symphony Orchestra 

Walter Damrosch, Conductor 
The German Liederkranz 

Arthur Claassen, Conductor 



Otto A. Graff, Organist 



THE 

GROVER CLEVELAND 

MEMORIAL 







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CARNEGIE HALL 

Thursday afternoon, March 18, 1909 

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE 

The divine blessing will now be invoked by the 
Rev. Dr. Richards. 

INVOCATION 

THE REV. DR. WILLIAM ROGERS RICHARDS 

Let us pray. Almighty God, giver of all mercies, 
we thank Thee for the great kindness that Thou 
hast shown to this land in granting us freedom and 
in establishing the nation in justice by the people's 
will. We also thank Thee that when perplexity 
and danger have come upon us Thou hast ever 
raised up for our deliverance men wise to know 
Thy will and strong and ever courageous in the 
doing of it. We give Thee thanks this day for the 
memory of a man who stood in that succession. We 
pray that Thou wilt guide and bless us in all that 
we do to-day to bring his name and example before 
the minds of the people. May those virtues which 
we have learned to love and honor in him become 

[3] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

more common among us. May such men never be 
wanting to serve the nation's need. We beseech 
Thee that Thy favor may not depart from us. 
Bless Thy servant, the President, and all those in 
authority, and all the people of these United States, 
that we may ever incline to Thy will and walk in 
Thy way. May reverence and justice and freedom 
and charity and courage be ever with us and give 
us peace with each other and with all the nations of 
the earth. We ask it in the name of Him who has 
died when we pray and say. Our Father who art in 
heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom 
come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our 
debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into 
temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is 
the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. 
Amen. 

Hymn, Largo .... Handel 

CHORUS AND ORGAN 



THE CHAIRMAN 

Twice within this year of notable commemorations 
our city, through its patriotic Mayor and Board of 
Aldermen, has called the people together to honor 
the memory of a great President of the United 
States. Upon the centenary of Abraham Lincoln, 

[*] 







(i^M^4 Uji^M. VU^5^ 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

liberator, Union saver, and protomartyr, the story 
of his great life learned from the written and the 
printed page was told and was heard by those who 
for the most part were bom since the date of his 
tragic death. Upon this seventy-second anniver- 
sary of the bii'th of Grover Cleveland his friends 
and neighbors, familiar with his featm'es, ac- 
quainted with the nobility of his character and his 
devout patriotism, meet together to pay their sin- 
cere tribute of affection to his beloved and revered 
memory. 

He was great as Mayor, as Governor, as Presi- 
dent; and here graciously have come the Mayor, 
the Governor, and the President, and the venerable 
Chief Justice w^ho administered to him and to his 
successors the solemn Presidential oath; and here, 
too, has come a letter from that impressive and 
striking personality who has succeeded to the soli- 
tary place of ex-President, so long filled by our 
beloved friend. 

All of these you will hear during this meeting 
under the direction of his Honor the Mayor, whom 
now it is my privilege to present to you as Chair- 
man of the day. \^Applause.~\ 



[5] 



THE HON. GEORGE B. McCLELLAN 

MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

We have met in behalf and in the name of the 
people of New York to commemorate Grover 
Cleveland on this the seventy-second anniversary of 
his birth. He was our Governor, twice our Presi- 
dent, sometime our fellow-townsman. 

This meeting has been called in response to a 
popular desire that there should be some public ex- 
pression of the affection and honor in which we held 
the man, of the loving reverence in which we hold 
his memory. 

Of the many Presidents of the United States 
some have been abler and stronger and greater than 
others, but all have been above mediocrity, not one 
of them has failed to grapple successfully with the 
problems which have confronted him, not one of 
them but has been worthy of the time in which he 
lived. Yet, of them all, five stand in a class apart, 
because they more nearly represent their periods, 
more fully express the hopes, the aspirations, and 
the ideals of their contemporaries: Washington, the 
Father, who brought our government into being; 
Jefferson, the republican, who saved us from an 
aristocracy; Jackson, the man of the people, who 
made our government one of the people; Lincoln, 

[ 6] 




^^^^^(/ 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

the unifier, who saved it a government for the peo- 
ple; and Cleveland, the democrat, who emphasized 
that for which he lived, in giving us a government 
by the people. All five enunciated political prin- 
ciples that have been so generally accepted that 
they are to-day part of the traditions of our govern- 
ment. 

To the principles for which Cleveland lived and 
fought and wrought, his name has been given. 
Clevelandism has been described as being nothing 
but the expression of the every-day and of the com- 
monplace, and so it is, for it is the enunciation of 
right Hving and thinking and doing, of rugged 
honesty and integrity in thought and word and 
deed, in private life and in public affairs, of plain 
speaking and plain dealing, of sincerity of purpose 
and absolute certainty of the righteousness of 
its cause — all homely, every-day, commonplace 
virtues. 

There is nothing new about Clevelandism. It 
has guided men as long as we have been a race and 
will continue to guide men as long as our race en- 
dures. The spirit of Clevelandism was present at 
Runnymede, which saw the dawn of English liberty 
through the efforts of every-day, commonplace 
English country gentlemen. The men who rode 
with Oliver Cromwell and brought modern Eng- 
land into being were only every-day, commonplace 
Enghsh tradesmen and yeomen. Our Revolution, 
which began with the Declaration of Independence 
and reached its full fruition with the adoption of 

[7] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

the Constitution, was the work of every-day, com- 
monplace Colonials. Our Civil War was fought 
and won and lost by every-day, commonplace 
Americans from the cotton-fields of the South and 
the wheat-fields of the North, from the workshop 
and the factory and the streets. The spirit of the 
every-day and of the commonplace has saved us 
many a time in the past and will save us many a 
time in the days to come. 

The men who have left their impress upon the 
history of our race, who have helped to mold us in 
our development as a nation, have not been the 
erratic, eccentric geniuses, but the slow-thinking 
and conservative men of wisdom and sober thought. 

The men who are our real heroes, the men who 
live in the hearts of the American people, are not 
those who dwell in Olympus, aloof, inimitable and 
unattainable, but the men who live upon the earth, 
who are of the earth, earthy, who are as human as 
we are, the men in whom we see our weaknesses and 
shortcomings and failings minimized, but our 
strength and our virtues glorified; not the men 
whom we know we cannot be like and would not if 
we could, but the men we know we are like in a 
small degree and in whose footsteps we follow a 
great way off. The men whose names are most 
often heard in the homes of the American people 
are the three who most nearly represented the essen- 
tial characteristics of the American race — Wash- 
ington, Lincoln, Cleveland. 

The hold which Grover Cleveland obtained and 

[8] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

retained upon the hearts of his countrymen was not 
so much because of what he did as because of what 
he was. The people saw in him their ideal of what 
an American ought to be; they saw in him the 
homely, every-day, commonplace virtues that their 
mothers taught them when they were children and 
that they in their turn teach their sons. They saw 
in him the type of man they would like to be them- 
selves, and in what he did and tried to do they saw 
the strivings of a man who was the concrete em- 
bodiment of our country. 

The world is better because he lived, for he suc- 
ceeded in his life's mission. He carried the people 
whom he served and loved a little forward, a little 
upward, a little nearer to their God. 



[9] 



Mayor McClellan: I have the honor to intro- 
duce to you his Excellency the Governor of New 
York. 

ADDRESS OF CHARLES E. HUGHES 

THE GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 

Mr. President, Mr, Mayor, Mr. Chairman, Ladies 
and Gentlemen: 

We are met to-day to pay a just tribute to a 
great hero of civil administration, who was not 
introduced to the favor of his countrymen by mili- 
tary achievement, who had not been associated with 
any great strife, with enemies abroad or within our 
boimds, who stands preeminently a great figure of 
peace unidentified in our country's history with 
those conflicts which have given us many of the men 
whom we admire as our national heroes. It is pre- 
cisely in that fact, and in the contribution that he 
made to our life within those limits, that we find 
the significance of this meeting. 

The fame of Grover Cleveland is secure because 
of the ruggedness, the simplicity of his character, 
and because of his inflexible determination in exe- 
cuting his honest judgment. Others may more 
appropriately speak at this time of his relation to 
national affairs, and the great part that he played 
as twice President of the United States, but it is 

[10] 




Copyright, IQOQ, by Mojffett Studio, Chicago 




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^CXiX^ 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 
weU that in this city we should recaD the service 
which he rendered to the State of New York as 
Mayor of one of its important municipalities and 
as ckef executive of the State. He was not bom 
m New York, but his early years were spent here. 
Here he laid the foundation for his future work- 
here he was trained in the arduous labors of his pro- 
fession, and here he indicated the principles which 
commended hmi to the confidence of the country at 
Jarge. He was favored in his early life. His was 
not an adventm-ous youth ; it does not contain a sen- 
sational episode; his was not the fortmie of a 
luxurious home, nor did he even have the average 
advantages so far as education was concerned His 
was the training of the village, of the village school, 
of the work of the humble clerk, of selfCprogres 
through constant devotion to the task of the day 
and preparation through self-culture for the task 
of the morrow. But he was fortunate because he 
was reared in a Christian household inspired by the 
highest Ideals and had his youthful training under 
conditions which neither made him the victim of 
extreme poverty on the one hand or of extraor- 

his"e?i ,7'.f "" "" *' °*^^- He represents in 
hs early We the opportunity afforded to thousands, 
ndeed millK,ns, of our young men. His was no 
the extraordinary career of a Lincoh; his was not 
the grinding poverty from which some of our great 
men have emerged. He was the son of an honest 
clergyman with a considerable family, and re- 
ceived the training which most American boys are 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

privileged to have, and so, after spending some 
years in Oneida County and other places in the 
upper part of the State, he went to Buffalo and for 
a long period after he had been admitted to the bar 
practised his profession. He was elected in 1881 
as Mayor of Buffalo simply because of the credit 
he had estabhshed with his fellow-citizens as a man 
of high ability, sound judgment, and absolute in- 
tegrity. He took the trying position of chief 
executive of the municipality with certain prin- 
ciples. What he exhibited there in that narrower 
sphere was precisely what he displayed in the larg- 
est sphere of action which the country affords. He 
was the same man in the Mayor's office at Buffalo 
as he was in the White House, and the messages 
which he sent to the Common Council of the city 
were phrased with the same determination, vigor, 
and expression of principle which characterize his 
later and more important official utterances. 

Our pubHc men as time passes do not become 
identified in the memory of the people so closely 
with the particular policies with which their public 
life has been intimately connected; the particular 
policies of the day are remembered by students, are 
discussed in special assemblies, but with the people 
at large the man in public life, if he is remembered 
at all, is remembered because of his adherence to the 
fundamental principles we all recognize, and be- 
cause of the impression made by the sterling worth 
of his character. It is precisely for that reason that 
we have confidence in the future of the Republic. 

[12] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

We judge our chances of success in this experiment 
of popular government by the sort of men we 
revere, and to-day we honor ourselves because we 
honor Grover Cleveland. 

He was a man who had firmly fixed in his mind 
the idea that a public officer was a public servant, 
a delegate of the people to perform certain duties 
prescribed by the Constitution and the statutes; 
that he was the representative of the constituency, 
and not for the purpose of furthering selfish ambi- 
tions or of exploiting particular schemes or helping 
himself or his friends to positions of advantage, but 
solely to do what, according to our traditions and 
principles of government, the officer in the particu- 
lar place was appointed or elected to do. He could 
express himself trenchantly. He had no fear. 
You may recall the words in which he vetoed a cer- 
tain proposition of the Common Council of Buf- 
falo. He says in his veto message : 

This is a time for plain speech, and my objection 
to the action of your honorable body, now under 
consideration, shall be plainly stated. I withhold 
my assent from the same because I regard it as the 
culmination of a most barefaced, impudent, and 
shameless scheme to betray the interests of the peo- 
ple and to worse than squander the public money. 

That was Grover Cleveland in Buffalo in 1882. 
Again and again he addressed to the Common 
Council of his city plain reminders of their obvious 
duty, but couched in such vigorous and sincere 

[13] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

terms that he won completely the confidence of his 
community without respect to party. The result 
was that when the Democratic convention met after 
Mr. Cleveland had for a time held the office of 
Mayor of Buffalo, there was no difficulty in per- 
suading it that he was the man to be selected as the 
candidate for the office of Governor. Mr. Cleve- 
land constantly in his public addresses emphasized 
the fact that whatever the office might be, whether 
mayor or governor, the conception of its duties with 
regard to the principles underlying it was precisely 
the same. So he went to Albany, and there he con- 
tinually presented to the public, to the Legislature 
in official documents and in his addresses, this 
proposition which had so completely captured his 
imagination, the proposition of the public officer 
doing that which he was elected to do. He had also 
certain ideas which he emphasized and which we 
must recognize as important contributions to the 
life of the State. For example, he spoke of the im- 
portance of the different communities of the State 
having an opportunity to develop their local life. 
Said he: 

I am unalterably opposed to the interference by 
the Legislature with the government of the muni- 
cipalities. I believe in the intelligence of the people 
when left to an honest freedom in their choice, and 
that, when the citizens of any section of the State 
have determined upon the details of a local govern- 
ment, they should be left in the undisturbed enjoy- 
ment of the same. The doctrine of home rule, as 
I understand it, lies at the foundation of republican 

[14] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

institutions, and cannot be too strongly insisted 
upon. 

Closely associated with that principle which he 
constantly emphasized was his effort to prevent un- 
necessary special legislation. Again and again he 
sent messages to the Legislature voicing his protest 
against the iniquity of unnecessary bills interfering 
in matters concerning the freedom of the local com- 
munity. Said he in one message : 

Another evil which has a most pernicious influ- 
ence on legislation is the introduction and considera- 
tion of bills purely local in their character, affecting 
only special interests, and which ought not upon 
any pretext to be permitted to encumber the stat- 
utes of the State. Every consideration of expedi- 
ency, as well as the language and evident intent of 
the Constitution, dictate the exclusion of such mat- 
ters from legislative consideration. Their consid- 
eration retards the business of the session and 
occupies time which should be devoted to better 
purposes. And this is not the worst result that may 
follow in their train. Such measures, there is 
ground to suspect, are frequently made the means 
of securing, by a promise of aid in their passage, 
the votes of those who introduce them, in favor of 
other and more vicious legislation. 

I speak of these matters because it is important, 
these days when we pay appropriate tribute to the 
men who have honored us in public stations, that we 
should endeavor to reset the scene, to reconstruct 
the hfe, to come close to the living man and under- 
stand exactly the principles that move him, and not 

[15] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

consume our time in vain eulogy without the in- 
spiration and encouragement of a proper under- 
standing of his actual conduct. 

We notice in addition as one of the principles of 
Mr. Cleveland's official conduct that there should 
be absolute justice in dealing with all of the crea- 
tures of the State and all who receive privileges 
from the State. On account of certain of his official 
actions there was a time when he was severely criti- 
cized as a friend of corporations, and it was sup- 
posed by some, indeed stated by some, that his 
official action was prompted because of his desire 
to protect them. Never was there a more unwar- 
ranted misconstruction of a public man of sincere 
purpose and integrity. In one case where he vetoed 
a bill which the public, or a certain portion of them, 
very much desired, he explained that his reason was 
that the State of New York must in all cases keep 
faith, and that the action there proposed was an act 
of infidelity, an act betraying what they had most 
solemnly promised. His general attitude toward 
corporations may be illustrated in this statement 
which appears in one of his messages : 

The State [he says] creates these corporations 
upon the theory that some proper thing of benefit 
can be better done by them than by private enter- 
prise, and that the aggregation of the funds of 
many individuals may be thus profitably employed. 
They are launched upon the public with the seal of 
the State in some sense upon them. They are per- 
mitted to represent the advantages they possess and 

[16] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

the wealth sure to follow from admission to mem- 
bership. It is a grave question whether the forma- 
tion of these artificial bodies ought not to be 
checked, or better regulated and in some way super- 
vised. At any rate, they should always be kept well 
in hand, and the funds of its citizens should be pro- 
tected by the State which has invited their invest- 
ment. While the stockholders are the owners of 
the corporate property, notoriously they are often- 
times completely in the power of the directors and 
managers. Acting within their legitimate sphere 
they should be protected, but whenever oppression 
appears, authority should be created to check it and 
prevent it. 

Grover Cleveland was a man who believed that 
public office was a public trust ; that local communi- 
ties should govern themselves; that in every official 
position there should be the highest efficiency 
through a proper method of obtaining civil service ; 
and that every one with whom the State was called 
upon to deal should be dealt with with absolute jus- 
tice and with regard for the supreme public interest. 
We can never grow so large, and the importance 
of emphasizing the rule of the people can never be- 
come so great, that we can afford to forget those 
principles that are illustrated in the life-work of 
Grover Cleveland as the Mayor of Buffalo and 
Governor of New York better than in any other 
public servant this State has ever had. It is because 
I deem it proper in my official position to emphasize 
these matters that I have brought them closely to 
your attention. We must remember that when 

[17] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

Grover Cleveland was uttering, as the Mayor has 
said, commonplaces, he was announcing fundamen- 
tal principles. He announced what others had 
announced before him. The principles for which 
he stood had long been recognized, but he sincerely, 
nobly, and vigorously applied them, and while we 
pay tribute to the memory of Grover Cleveland, 
twice President of the United States, honored man 
of the nation, let us not forget our great indebted- 
ness to Grover Cleveland, Governor of the State 
of New York. 

Music^ 

Andante from Fifth Symphony . . Beethoven 

ORCHESTRA 



Mayor McClellan: The poem written for this 
day will be read by its author. I have great 
pleasure in introducing to you Mr. Richard 
Watson Gilder. 

Mr. Gilder read the following poem : 



[18] 



CLEVELAND 



He shrank from praise, this simple-hearted man— 
Therefore we praise him! Yet, as he would wish, 
Chiefly our praise not for the things he did. 
But for his spirit in doing. Ah, great heart. 
And humble ! Great and simple heart ! forgive 
The homage we may not withhold ! Strong soul ! 
Thou brave and faithful servant of the State, 
Who labored day and night in little things, 
No less than large, for the loved country's sake, 
With patient hand that plodded while others slept! 
Who flung to the winds preferment and the future, 
Daring to put clear truth to the perilous test. 
Fearing no scathe if but the people gained. 
And happiest far in sacrifice and loss. 
Yes, happiest he when, plain in all men's sight, 
He turned contemptuous from the lure of place. 
Spurning the laurel that should crown success 
Soiled by surrender and a perjured soul. 

II 

The people! Never once his faith was dimmed 
In them his countrymen ; ah, never once ; 
For if doubt shook him, 't was but a fleeting mood ; 
Though others wavered, never wavered he. 

[19] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

Though madness, like a flood, swept o'er the land, 
This way, now that ; though love of pelf subdued 
The civic conscience, still he held his faith. 
Unfaltering, in man's true-heartedness. 
And in the final judgment of free men. 



in 

Firm with the powerful, gentle with the weak. 

His was the sweetness of the strong ! His voice 

Took tenderness in speech with little folk, 

And he was pitiful of man and brute. 

So, for the struggle with high things of state. 

He strengthened his own heart with kindly deeds — 

His own heart strengthened for stern acts of power 

That, fashioned in the secret place of thought. 

And in the lonely and the silent shrine 

Of conscience, came momentous on the world: 

Built stronger the foundations of the State ; 

Upheld the word of Honor, no whit less 

'Twixt nation and nation than 'twixt man and man ; 

Held righteousness the one law of the world, 

And higher set the hopes of all mankind. 

IV 

Lonely the heart that listens to no voice 
Save that of Duty; lonely he how oft 
When, turning from the smooth, advised path. 
He climbed the chill and solitary way ; 
Wondering that anj'^ wondered, when so clear 

[20] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

The light that led— the light of perfect faith 
And passion for the right, that fire of heaven 
Wherein self dies, and only truth lives on! 
Lonely how oft when, with the statesman's art, 
He waited for the fullness of the time. 
And wrought the good he willed by slow degrees, 
And in due order conquered wrong on wrong. 
Lonely how oft when 'mid dark disesteem 
He moved straightforward to a longed-for goal. 
Doing each day the best he might, with vision 
Firm fixt above, kept pure by pure intent. 



Some souls are built to take the shocks of the world, 
To interpose against blind currents of fate, 
Or wrath, or ignorant purpose, a fixt will ; 
Against the bursting storm a front of calm; 
As, when the Atlantic rages, some stern cliff 
Hurls back the tempest and the ponderous wave. 
So stood he firm when lesser wills were broken; 
So he endured when others failed and fell; 
Bearing, in silent suffering, the stress, 
The blame, the burden of the fateful day. 

VI 

So single and so simple was his mind. 
So unperturbed by learned subtleties 
And so devout of justice and the right — 
His thought, his act, held something of the prime ; 

[21] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

The wide, sure vision of the ancient day- 
Prophetic; even a touch of nature's force — 
Large, elemental, healing; builded well 
On the deep bases of humanity. 



VII 

O strong oak riven ! O tower of defense 
Fallen ! O captain of the hosts struck down ! 
O cries of lamentation — turning swift 
To sounds of triumph and great victories ! 
For unto the hands of one of humble soul 
Great trust was laid, and he that trust fulfilled. 
So he who died accomplished mighty deeds. 
And he who fought has won the infinite peace. 
And sleeps enshrined in his own people's hearts, 
And in the praise of nations and the world. 
And rests immortal among the immortal Great. 



[22] 




O'/j-r/i,-///, IQOO. hy //.irii.'. C- E 



jkUj^^i^ J^/^^/6.> 



Mayor McClellan: Ladies and Gentlemen: I 
have the honor to introduce to you the Chief 
Justice of the United States. 

ADDRESS OF CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER 

In announcing to the people of the United States 
the sad tidings of the death of General Grant, 
President Cleveland said that, whether as a soldier 
or as a Chief ISIagistrate, the illustrious deceased 
"trod unswervingly the pathway of duty, unde- 
terred by doubts, single-minded and straightfor- 
ward." 

In these words ]Mr. Cleveland indicated the qual- 
ities he thought most commendable in a public 
serv^ant, and in eulogizing another unconsciously 
portrayed himself, for he was single-minded, and 
straightforward, and unswerving, and nothing 
doubting, in his adherence to duty. 

He never doubted that the conduct of public 
affairs should be governed by the principles of 
honor and truthfulness and honest dealing — in 
short, the principles applicable to the discharge of 
trusts— and he regarded public office as a public 
trust. 

At the same time he fully recognized the neces- 
sity of political parties, whose conflicts over gen- 
eral principles resulted in that golden mean which 

[23] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

gives peace, prosperity, and success to the govern- 
ment of the people. 

I should say that President Jefferson's first in- 
augural embodied, in a general way. President 
Cleveland's political views, including the belief that 
when the elections were over all should vmite in 
common efforts for the common good. 

Nevertheless he often declared, in a party sense, 
that he was a Democrat. He did not seem to think 
that that word, as he used it, needed any explana- 
tion, though, if it did, he repeatedly gave it, as, for 
instance, in his letter to Mr. MacVeagh on the occa- 
sion of the Jackson Day Celebration at Chicago in 
1897, when he wrote : 

At such a time it should be impressively taught 
that Democracy is not disorder; that its regard for 
popular rights does not mean the care of only a 
portion of our people; that its loyalty to the Con- 
stitution and law does not mean a petulant chal- 
lenge of the duty of civic obedience; that its 
aggressiveness does not mean class hatred and 
sectional vituperation; and that its success should 
never mean mere partizan triumph at the sacrifice 
of principle and patriotism. 

How like the man that is ! It shows the comfort- 
ing idealism back of its political utterances, while, 
like them, it is good old-fashioned plain talk, with- 
out any taint of subtlety about it. 

Holding the views that he did, and being a last- 
ditch fighter, it is perhaps not to be wondered at 
that many of his followers attacked instead of sup- 

[24] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

ported him, and, as they could not catch him asleep, 
violently sought to throw him overboard; but, Hke 
Palinurus, in that particular he carried his rudder 
with him, and, riding the tempestuous seas trium- 
phantly, regained the ship and brought her safely 
into port. 

The truth is that the people, whom he loved so 
well, like a man, and Cleveland was a man, and of 
course as such to be trusted, and they knew it. The 
sober second thought, the salvation of the republic, 
came up in full tide, and whatever its ebb and flow 
during the tribulations of his second term, it vindi- 
cated his heroic maintenance of the conviction that 
because right is right to follow right is wisdom in 
the scorn of consequence. 

Think for a moment how he stood like a rock for 
the public credit in the financial upheaval arising 
from the silver excitement, which had swept away 
the majority of his own party; how he put down the 
Chicago riots; how he averted threatened national 
bankruptcy by the issue of bonds; how he faced 
with calm serenity torrents of personal abuse, de- 
sertion of friends, misapprehension in the public 
mind, and resolutely discarded the temporary ex- 
pediencies of the mere politician. 

Doubtless, though he suppressed the evidence 
of it, he felt keenly the personal attacks upon him, 
for, serious-minded as he was, it is an egregious 
mistake to assume that he was lacking in tender 
emotions. I recall an incident strikingly illustra- 
tive of this, which I must be pardoned for relating. 

[25] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

At the remarkable Centennial Celebration of the 
Organization of the Federal Judiciary, held in 
New York, February 4, 1890, over which Mr. 
Cleveland presided with great dignity, the eminent 
jurist and eloquent speaker, Mr. Edward J. Phelps, 
in the course of one of the formal addresses deliv- 
ered on that occasion, turning to Mr. Cleveland 
and the court, referred to Chatham's declaration 
that the poor man's cabin was his castle — the wind 
might enter it, the rain might enter it, but the King 
of England could not enter it — and said that the 
great statesman and orator did not say that the 
Parliament of Great Britain might not enter it, 
yet here in America was a court to which the poor 
man might resort, whose judgment, pronounced in 
the due course of judicial proceedings, could bar 
the entrance of the Congress if its action were held 
to be contrary to the Constitution of the United 
States. 

I happened to glance at JNIr. Cleveland, and the 
tears were rolling down his face. 

But at last the long day's work was over and he 
laid his armor off, retiring for his well-earned repose 
to that abode of scholars, Princeton, in his native 
State of New Jersey. 

Although making no claim to scholarship as 
such, he characteristically sought rest in intercourse 
with scholars and in quiet meditation over the les- 
sons taught by battles far away. 

And then came the reaction, and before his weary 
eyes were closed on earth it was vouchsafed to him 
to know that his courage, his strength of purpose, 

[26] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

his fidelity to duty, were fully recognized, and that 
he was reaping the reward of the good and faithful 
servant. 

He was indeed a great man, and it was character 
that made him great — character, which Emerson 
describes as "a reserved force, which acts directly 
by pressure and without means," "a certain un- 
demonstrable force, a Familiar or Genius, by whose 
impulses the man is guided" and accomplishes 
things by a sort of magnetism. Washington had 
it, and Lincoln had it, and the people have always 
finally acknowledged it. 

It is very right that this tribute is paid to him, 
and that the President of the United States and the 
Governor of the State of New York, the successor 
of Mr. Cleveland, have joined in it. I find in the 
President that adherence to duty and those plain 
and practical utterances that were Mr. Cleveland's, 
and I mark with delight the salutary influence on 
the Governor of the fearlessness of his illustrious 
predecessor. 

At the simple rites with which he was committed 
to the grave, Wordsworth's poem of "The Happy 
Warrior" was read, and, applicable as it was, I 
still could not help thinking of Valiant-for-truth's 
last words : 

My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in 
my pilgrimage, and my corn-age and skill to him 
that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with 
me to be a witness for me that I have fought His 
battles that will now be my rewarder. 

[27] 



Mayor McClellan: Ladies and Gentlemen: 
Gentlemen, I ask you to arise and receive our 
Chief Magistrate. I have the honor to present 
you to the President. 

ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF 
THE UNITED STATES 

Grover Cleveland was as completely American 
in his character as Lincoln. Without a college edu- 
cation, he prepared himself for the bar. His life 
was confined to western New York. His vision of 
government and of society was not widened by 
foreign travel. He was a pure product of the vil- 
lage and town life of the Middle States, affected 
by New England ancestry and the atmosphere of 
a clergyman's home. His chief characteristics were 
simplicity and directness of thought, sturdy hon- 
esty, courage of his convictions, and plainness of 
speech, with a sense of public duty that has been 
exceeded by no statesman within my knowledge. 
It was so strong in him that he rarely wrote any- 
thing, whether in the form of a private or public 
communication, that the obligation of all men to 
observe the public interest was not his chief theme. 
His career was a most remarkable one. By his 
administration of the affairs of his city as its 
Mayor, he showed his power of resistance to, and 

[28] 




Copyright, IQOQ, by llatris u-" Ezeha; 



z 



Jf^.J'f^^^ 




THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

of overcoming the influence that made for, corrup- 
tion and negligence in city government, both in 
his own party and in the party of his opponents. 
His reputation in this regard spread over the 
State of New York at a time when such an 
attitude as his seemed exceptional, and his standing 
before the community became a political asset for 
the Democratic party, that even those who had but 
little sympathy with his principles were glad to 
seize upon as a means of getting into power. Ac- 
cordingly, he was nominated for the governorship, 
and was elected by the votes not only of his own 
party but of hundreds of thousands of the Republi- 
can party. The discharge of his duties as Gov- 
ernor confirmed and strengthened the reputation 
that he had acquired as Mayor. Before he had 
ceased his office as Mayor, he had been elected Gov- 
ernor. Before he had ceased his office as Governor, 
he had been elected President of the United States. 

The Presidential campaign of 1884 degenerated 
into one of slander, scandal, and abuse, but Mr. 
Cleveland came through it, retaining the confidence 
of the American people in his courage and honesty 
and his single purpose to better the public service. 

Mr. Cleveland was a Democrat. He was a parti- 
zan. He believed in parties, as all men must who 
understand the machinery essential to the success 
and efficiency of popular government. His im- 
pulses were all toward the merit system of appoint- 
ments in the public service, and against the spoils 
system; but he had a practical, common-sense view 

[29] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

of the problems before him. He dealt with the 
instruments which he had, and he not infrequently 
was obliged, in order to accomplish greater objects, 
to yield to the demands of those who had no ideals, 
and who were impatient of anything but the use of 
government offices as a purely political reward. 
Every time that opportunity offered, however, and 
there was not some greater object in immediate 
view, he strengthened and assisted the movement 
toward the merit system. 

Mr. Cleveland's political career was so short that 
he had a great advantage over the prominent men 
of his party whose records reached back into, and 
were governed by, the bitter quarrels of the Civil 
War. As a political quantity, his history began 
during the corruption and demoralization in the 
Republican party which were a necessary result of 
continued power during the war and the decade 
succeeding it. He represented in a sense a new 
Democracy, about which all the older elements 
rallied, both those strongly in sympathy with his 
reform views, and those elements without such 
sympathy, who were anxious to secure party 
power. 

At the end of his first term he was renominated, 
but was beaten by General Harrison in a close 
vote. By that time the politicians of the old school 
in the Democratic party had drawn away from him, 
and had no desire to continue his leadership. But 
so strong a hold had he upon the affections and 
confidence of the rank and file of his party, and 

[30] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

so sure were they that he was stronger than the 
party in an electoral contest, that he was nominated 
in the National Convention against the desires of 
most of the State organization leaders; and in the 
election which followed he led his party to the great- 
est victory in its history. 

In this campaign Mr. Cleveland stood for an 
affirmative idea, that of a reduction of the tariff, 
so as to make it a tariff for revenue. He attacked 
the protective theory and system. He stood for 
something aggressive and affirmative. It was in 
accordance with the ancient traditions of the party. 

I do not need to enter into a discussion of the 
merits of the issue, but comment on it only as illus- 
trating Mr. Cleveland's character. He was posi- 
tive. He was affirmative. He was courageous. 
He believed in parties. He believed in party pol- 
icies, and he believed in consistency in regard to 
them, and he did not believe in trimming down a 
policy to catch the votes of those who really did not 
agree with it. 

The first time Mr. Cleveland was in power he 
was opposed by a Republican Senate. This gave 
little opportunity for any radical change by legis- 
lation in the previous policies of Republican admin- 
istrations, but it did offer an opportunity for Mr. 
Cleveland to point out to the country the fact that 
our government is a government of three distinct 
branches, the executive, the legislative, and the 
judicial, and that the executive has a sphere which 
the legislative branch has no right to invade. 

[31] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

We hear much in these days of the usurpation 
of the legislative jurisdiction by the executive 
branch. As long as the legislative branch has the 
power of the purse, the danger of executive usurpa- 
tion is imaginative. The real danger arises from 
the disposition of the legislative branch to assume 
that it has the omnipotence of Parliament and may 
completely control the discretion conferred upon 
the executive by the Constitution. The country is 
under obligation to Mr. Cleveland for having 
pointed out, in his controversy with the Republican 
Senate, some of the limitations that there are in the 
Constitution upon attempted legislative action to 
restrict executive discretion. In the end Mr. Cleve- 
land won in his controversy with the Senate. 
Whether he might have done so, had both the 
House and the Senate been against him, is a matter 
of doubt. The history of Andrew Johnson's con- 
troversy with Congress shows how far a partizan 
legislature may be induced to go in an unconstitu- 
tional attempt to cut down executive power. The 
limit of legislative restriction upon executive action 
is a difficult line to define. Any one who attempts 
to do more than to pass on single instances as they 
arise may find himself in great difficulty, but as 
such instances are considered and decided, the limits 
are gradually being defined. We owe to Mr. Cleve- 
land and his courage in dealing with the Senate of 
the United States the establishment of some useful 
precedents. 

In Mr. Cleveland's second term there was a large 
[82] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

majority of his party in the House and a working 
majority in the Senate, so that the whole respon- 
sibiHty of government fell upon the Democracy, 
with Mr. Cleveland at its head. The significance 
of his second administration centers about three 
issues. The first was the tariff; the second, free 
silver; and the third, the suppression of lawlessness 
directed against Federal authority by use of the 
process of Federal courts and by Federal troops. 
The same influence in his own party which had 
sought to defeat Mr. Cleveland for nomination in 
his third canvass, he found intrenched in the Senate 
so strongly as to be able to defeat the declared pol- 
icy of his party in favor of a revenue tariff, and he 
refused to sign the Gorman- Wilson Bill, but al- 
lowed it to become a law after denouncing it as the 
result of perfidy and dishonor. This was doubtless 
the greatest disappointment of his political life, for 
it destroyed the opportunity to test the wisdom of 
the party policy advocated by him and declared in 
the party platform, while the business depression 
which existed before and after its passage furnished 
ammunition to his pohtical opponents, who did not 
hesitate to argue that the prospect of a revenue 
tariff on the one hand and the passage of the actual 
Gorman- Wilson Bill on the other had paralyzed 
the industries of the country. Whatever one's 
views upon the tariff, whether he be a protectionist 
or a free-trader, he cannot but have the deepest 
sympathy with Mr. Cleveland in his deep indigna- 
tion at the party disloyalty which defeated the 

[33] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

Wilson Bill as it passed the House, and gave us 
the nondescript bill which became the law. 

But there was a rising in the Democratic party 
at the time, especially in the western and southern 
parts of the country, a desire for economic remedy 
which should cure everything in our business and 
body politic. This was the movement in favor of 
the free coinage of silver. The Republican party 
and some of its leaders in the West and South had 
not been free from weakness in this respect, and the 
law for the monthly purchases of $2,000,000 of 
silver hung like a stone around the neck of the coun- 
try. Mr. Cleveland used all the authority that he 
could command as the Executive to bring about 
a repeal of this law, and he finally succeeded. The 
deep gratitude of the country is due to him for this 
result. Without it disaster would have come. With- 
out it the credit of the country could not have been 
sustained, and there would have been a blot on our 
financial escutcheon. But when Mr. Cleveland suc- 
ceeded in securing the repeal of the Sherman Act, 
it seemed as if his control over the party with re- 
spect to the monetary issue had been exhausted. 
His party became hopelessly divided, and the ma- 
jority of it declared in favor of the free coinage of 
silver, a policy which we know to-day, and which 
we ought to have known then, was nothing but a 
policy of repudiation. It was a policy completely 
contrary to the ancient and traditional views of the 
old Democratic party. It was a departure from 
the plainest principles of honesty to those who fore- 

[34] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

saw its effect in repudiation and scaling down of 
public and private debts by legislative fiat. It was 
a policy which has taken away from the Demo- 
cratic party the confidence of the business com- 
munity, whether previously Democratic or Repub- 
lican. It presented a moral issue so sharp, so clear, 
as completely to destroy party fealty and party 
attachments. It took away from the Democratic 
party that strong, conservative element of which 
Mr. Cleveland was the leader, and it made it for the 
time a party which seemed to threaten the founda- 
tion of honest business and of honest government. 
It seemed to make its campaign in 1896 and 1900 
an assault upon that which was best in our civiliza- 
tion. In my judgment, the safety of the Republic 
was threatened by the breaking up of the Demo- 
cratic party into its radical and conservative ele- 
ments. 

In the campaigns of Mr. Blaine and Mr. Cleve- 
land and of Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Harrison, 
every one felt, however deep his partizan desires, 
that the institutions of the country, as established 
by the fathers, would be preserved under the leader- 
ship of either party; but in the campaign of 1896, 
and the one which followed it, there was certainly 
no such confidence on the part of the men who 
voted for Mr. McKinley. It seemed to be an issue 
in which the permanence of our institutions was 
involved. In this light, it was an unfortunate day 
for the Republic when the leadership of the Democ- 
racy passed from Mr. Cleveland. 

[35] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

The patriotic spirit which moved those under 
Mr. Cleveland's leadership to break from party- 
ties and save the country from repudiation entitled 
them and him to our everlasting gratitude. 

Another great debt which the country owes to 
Mr. Cleveland is the assertion, made through him 
as its Chief Executive, of the power of the Federal 
Government directly to defend the Federal juris- 
diction, through the process of Federal courts and 
by Federal troops, against the lawless invasion of 
a mob. Mr. Cleveland was a Democrat and of 
course respected the traditional construction of the 
Constitution by the party; but no fear of apparent 
inconsistency prevented him from asserting the 
full Federal power to maintain its authority to sup- 
press lawlessness when directed against Federal 
right and Federal jurisdiction; and so he instituted 
proceedings in the Federal courts to restrain the 
Debs boycott of the country, the tying up of inter- 
state commerce, and the interference with the mails, 
and he sent the troops under General Miles to Chi- 
cago to make his assertion of the power effective. 
It cost him the support of the thoughtless whose 
sympathy against the unjust aggressions of cor- 
porate power and wealth makes them wink at the 
lawless invasion of vested rights. But he succeeded 
in stopping what had really grown to the propor- 
tions of an insurrection. The highest tribunal cre- 
ated by the Constitution to fix the limits of State 
and national authority completely sustained his 
course. There were some other issues in his admin- 

[36] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

istration; there were other controversies in which 
he took part in his political hfe, but time permits me 
only to discuss those which I have referred to. 

Grover Cleveland earned the sincere gratitude of 
his countrymen and justified recurring memorial 
occasions like the one in which we are taking part. 
He was a great President, not because he was a 
great lawyer, not because he was a brilliant ora- 
tor, not because he was a statesman of profound 
learning, but because he was a patriot with the 
highest sense of public duty, because he was a 
statesman of clear perceptions, of the utmost cour- 
age of his convictions, and of great plainness of 
speech ; because he was a man of the highest charac- 
ter, a father and husband of the best type, and be- 
cause throughout his political life he showed those 
rugged virtues of the public servant and citizen, 
the emulation of which by those who follow him 
will render progress of our political life toward bet- 
ter things a certainty. 



[37] 



Mayor McClellan: Mr. Stetson, the Chairman 
of the Committee, will read the letter from the 
former President of the United States, Theo- 
dore Roosevelt. 

Mr. Stetson read as follows: 



THE WHITE HOUSE 

Washington, November 16, 1908. 
My dear Mr. Stetson: 

I regret that it is not possible for me to be pres- 
ent in person at the meeting held under the auspices 
of the Cleveland Memorial Committee. I wish you 
all success in your efforts. 

I was a member of the Legislature when Mr. 
Cleveland became Governor of the State of New 
York at the beginning of the year 1883, and for the 
next twenty-five years on several different occa- 
sions I was brought into close contact with him. 
For two years during his second administration I 
served under him as Civil Service Commissioner. 
Like all others who were thrown closely with him, 
I was much impressed by his high standard of of- 
ficial conduct and his rugged strength of character. 
Not only did I become intimately acquainted with 
the manner in which he upheld and enforced the 
civil service law, but I also saw at close quarters his 

[38] 




Copyright, igoj, by Hanis &fi Eiving: 






c^^ 



.^ 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

successful fight against free silver, and the courage 
with which he, aided by men like the late Senator 
Cushman K. Davis of Minnesota, supported the 
judiciary at the time of the Chicago riot; and, fi- 
nally, I happened to be in a position in which I 
knew intimately how he acted and the reasons why 
he acted in the Venezuelan matter. This knowledge 
gained at first hand enables me to bear testimony, 
which I am more than glad to bear, to the late Pres- 
ident's earnest purpose to serve the whole country, 
and the high courage with which he encountered 
every species of opposition and attack. Owing to 
a peculiar combination of circumstances, he went 
out of office assailed even more bitterly by his o^vn 
party than by the opposing party, and short-sighted 
people thought that the great mass of American 
citizens had repudiated him and disbelieved in him. 

Six years later it happened that I was at St. Louis 
as President when Mr. Cleveland, then a plain pri- 
vate citizen, arose to make an address in the great 
hall of the Exposition; and no one who was there 
will ever forget the extraordinary reception given 
him by the scores of thousands present. It was an 
extraordinary testimony to the esteem and regard 
in which he was held, an extraordinary testimony to 
the fact that the American people had not forgotten 
him, and, looking back, had recognized in him a 
man who with straightforward directness had 
sought to do all in his power to serve their interests. 

Moreover, all Americans should pay honor to the 
memory of Mr. Cleveland because of the simplicity 

[39] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL . 

and dignity with which as ex-President he led his 
life in the beautiful college town wherein he elected 
to live. He had been true to the honorable tradi- 
tion which has kept our Presidents from making 
money while in office. His hfe was therefore of 
necessity very simple; but it was the kind of Hfe 
which it is a good thing to see led by any man who 
has held a position such as he held. 

Again wishing you all good fortune, I am. 
Sincerely yours, 

Theodoee Roosevelt. 



Sacred Song, 

"The Heavens Proclaim" .... Beethoven 

CHORUS AND ORCHESTRA 



[40] 



Mayor McClellan: Benediction will be pro- 
nounced by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Schulman. 

BENEDICTION 

THE REV. DR. SAMUEL SCHULMAN 

Everlasting God, who art nearest to us when in 
reverence we acknowledge Thy rule and when in 
humility we recognize duty as our service, we turn 
to Thee in the conclusion of this sacred memorial to 
ask Thy benediction. Bless, for the American peo- 
ple, the memory of Thy servant Grover Cleveland. 
Let the record of his strong character, his faithful 
stewardship in exalted office, his fine courage in 
leadership of men, be an inspiration growing from 
day to day in strength and leading the people to 
the understanding that righteousness exalts it. 
May the memory of his generous manhood, his civic 
virtue, his broad-minded Americanism, endure as a 
lesson to the republic, as the embodiment of its ideal 
of loyalty, that it is not conditioned by racial origin 
or creedal profession, but roots in the soul's love of 
freedom, of justice, of right, and of our devotion to 
the land and its laws. 

Bless our beloved President of the United States 
who is with us, that he may lead in wisdom, in virtue 
and fear of Thee the American nation from strength 

[41] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

to strength. Bless this assemblage, that the glori- 
fication of the immortal dead may quicken the pa- 
triotism of the living. Bless every home and heart 
in our land in accordance with Thy threefold 
priestly blessing as it is written : 

May the Lord bless you and keep you; 

May the Lord let His countenance shine upon 
you, and be gracious unto you; 

May the Lord lift His face upon you, and give 
you peace. Amen. 



[42] 




ISit'i 



THE 

GROVER CLEVELAND 

MEMORIAL 



THE GREAT HALL 
THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

THURSDAY EVENING THE EIGHTEENTH OF MARCH 

IN THE YEAR ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED 

AND NINE. AT EIGHT-FIFTEEN O'CLOCK 



ORDER OF EXERCISES 



1 Organ Prelude — 

Paraphrase on Handel Chorus Guilmant 

Reve Angelique Rubinstein 

PROFESSOR SAMUEL A. BALDWIN 

2 Overture . . . Coriolan" .... Beethoven 

THE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 

3 Presentation of the Mayor as Chairman 

The Honorable Edward M. Shepard 

4 Address .... The Honorable George B. McClellan 

Mayor of the city of New York 

5 Feldeinsamkeit E. Wendel 

THE UNITED GERMAN SINGING SOCIETIES OF NEW YORK 

6 Address The Honorable Elihu Root 

Senator from New York 

7 Siegfried's Death "Die Gotterdammerung" . R. Wagner 

THE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 

8 Address The Honorable George Gray 

United States Circuit Judge 

9 a. Early Morning in the Field .... R. Burkhardt 
b. Soldier's Farewell Johanna Kinkel 

THE UNITED GERMAN SINGING SOCIETIES OF NEW YORK 

10 Address . . . The Honorable William B. Hornblower 



11 Address . . . The Reverend Daniel J. Quinn, S.J. 

President of Fordham University 

1 2 With Verdure Clad ." Creation " Haydn 

MME. LILLIAN BLAUVELT 

13 Address .... The Honorable Charles E. Hughes 

Governor of the State of New York 

14 Dankgebet Ed. Kremser 

CHORUS, ORCHESTRA AND ORGAN 

Julius Lorenz, Conductor 




^^f</^K/WyH v^^ 



THE COLLEGE OF THE CITY 
OF NEW YORK 

Thursday evening, March 18, 1909 



MR. EDWARD M. SHEPARD 

presented the Mayor as Chairman, and said : 

This Great Hall and the buildings around are 
dearer to many of us because they and the college 
which dwells in them were so near, in his later years, 
to the great American whom to-night we commem- 
orate. After three times he had stood first in the 
popular suffrages of his countrymen for the chief 
magistracy of the nation, after twice he had been 
chosen to it under the Constitution, after, for eight 
years, he had exercised its powers — after he had 
faced, while President, and afterward, when he had 
left the White House, the misunderstandings or 
even stormy hostility, as well as the cheers, of those 
masses of men to whom he rendered such enormous 
and enduring service, and— still after that— when, 
all such hostility and misunderstandings being fi- 
nally conquered, he was left rich in the almost unan- 
imous confidence and love of the land— then it was 
that he brought honor to the supreme cause of edu- 

[45] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

cation as it is here cherished by the city of New 
York. When, five years ago, the corner-stone of 
this building was laid and we welcomed a new chief 
and pilot of the college, Grover Cleveland came to 
us, helping by his strong and sympathetic support 
to exalt the work in which we were engaged. And 
when, last May, we dedicated the completed build- 
ings, and when he could not, as he would, come to us 
— because he was near a far greater summons — 
then it was that he sent to us his dearest messenger 
again to bring his strong and sympathetic support. 
So it is, Mr. President, Governor Hughes, and 
Mr. Mayor, that here, where the republic and its 
ideals of the future are in the making — here it is 
that we welcome you to this celebration of one of the 
chief heroes. And it is my privilege to ask to pre- 
side one to whom this college is in great and special 
debt. Ladies and gentlemen, I present, as chair- 
man, his Honor Mayor IMcClellan. 



[46] 



MAYOR McCLELLAN 
then spoke as follows: 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

The purpose of this meeting is to give an oppor- 
tunity to those who were unable to leave their work 
to attend the meeting at Carnegie Hall this after- 
noon, to join in commemorating Grover Cleveland 
on the seventy -second anniversary of his birth. 

We have met as citizens of New York to give 
public expression of the affection in which we held 
the man and the honor in which we hold his memory. 

The heritage which Cleveland has left us is not 
so much the record of his specific achievements in 
statecraft as the character of the man himself. He 
succeeded in giving this country the kind of gov- 
ernment in which he believed and in which his coun- 
trymen believe, because the people and he worked 
together for a common end. There was a partner- 
ship between them which began when he first en- 
tered public life and lasted until his death. It was 
a union in thought, in hope, in aspirations, and in 
ideals. It was the result of mutual confidence and 
mutual trust. The people believed in him, and he 
believed in the people. This implicit trust in the 
common sense and integrity of the people of the 
United States was the inspiration of his entire 
career. 

[47] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

He was neither a demigod nor a demagogue, but 
a rugged, honest, broad-minded, wise American cit- 
izen. There was nothing sensational or theatrical 
about him. He did not appeal to his countrymen 
in their moments of excitement or thoughtlessness. 
He did not play upon their passions or their preju- 
dices, but influenced and guided them through their 
sober judgment and their calm common sense. 

Long after those of us who are here to-night have 
passed away the name of Grover Cleveland will 
live and still be honored and cherished in the hearts 
of the American people as that of a man who could 
not think an ignoble thought or do a mean action; 
a man who was intensely human and intensely 
American, whose leadership of his countrymen was 
no forced march, but who strove with all the honesty 
and intensity of his great soul to have them move 
forward with him in human progress. 

I now present the Hon. Elihu Root, Senator 
from New York. 



[48] 




Ci'/yiy'^/i/. igoQ, hy Harris >£~ E'n<itii_ 





SENATOR ROOT 

It is a grateful duty to pay public honor to Mr. 
Cleveland, because he was our friend and because 
all of us are his debtors for his inestimable service 
to our country. 

It is not merely a duty to Mr. Cleveland's mem- 
ory, it is an opportunity for Americans to signify 
their capacity to appreciate such a man as he was. 

A nation may be known by the men it honors. 

All the world honors genius ; all the world is daz- 
zled by military glory; all the world is swayed by 
power of leadership over masses of men; all the 
world extols great deeds done ; but the best evidence 
of a nation's greatness, the best augury of its power 
to rise to higher levels of national life, is to be found 
in the exhibition of general and heartfelt apprecia- 
tion of a noble character. 

It is to the honor of America that the deepest, 
most lasting impressions from the times of Wash- 
ington and of Lincoln are not so much what they 
did but what they were. Against the background 
of their arduous labors stand out the men themselves 
— the fortitude in adversity, the long-suffering pa- 
tience, the indomitable will, the strength, the cour- 
age, the great-heartedness, the unselfishness, the 
devotion. The powerful influence of a strong and 
noble character made manifest in high station is the 

[49] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

chief legacy of Grover Cleveland to his country- 
men, and it can never be lost, for that influence has 
greatly moved his generation to higher conceptions 
of civic duty and independent manhood and public 
righteousness. Students of political history will 
remember the many good things he did; but all 
America has passed a step nearer to its ideals be- 
cause of what he was. 

He did not rise conspicuously above the men of 
his time in intellectual power. His mind gave forth 
none of those emanations of genius which the world 
admires at a distance and which make their way 
into the common apprehension only in after years. 
One of the elements of his strength was that his 
mind worked as the minds of most Americans work, 
only more powerfully and conclusively than most 
minds. He spoke and wrote distinctly truths that 
Americans generally were conscious of thinking 
vaguely. His words, backed by his great authority 
and still more potently backed by the example of 
his life, brought realization of great saving common 
truths that were being forgotten. He was a man of 
convictions, not extemporized for the moment, or for 
a purpose, but real, vital, and urgent. He thought 
them out and felt them through and through. His 
judgments were not the cock-sure opinions of igno- 
rant conceit, but the result of mature deliberation. 
He gave enormous industry and pains to the pro- 
cess by which he reached them. He brought to his 
work strong practical common sense, a just and 
well-balanced mind, a temperament of sustained 

[50] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

vigor and without malice, sincerity of purpose, and, 
as time went on, ever-increasing wisdom and insight 
into Hf e. 

His convictions once settled, he was absolutely 
immovable in them. Neither political expediency 
nor personal fortunes produced the slightest effect 
upon his active adherence to them. 

He believed the Silver Purchase Act was ruinous 
to the country, and he forced its repeal while the 
politicians of the country for the most part were 
cautiously sounding public sentiment. 

He considered that the attitude of Great Britain 
in the Venezuela boundary controversy put at issue 
the JNIonroe Doctrine, essential to our national 
safety, and he unhesitatingly risked the wi-eck of his 
administration and a disastrous war in uncompro- 
mising committal to the application of the tradi- 
tional American policy at all hazards to that 
concrete case. He came to the conclusion that our 
protective policy was wrong, and he risked and lost 
his reelection by the tariff message at the close of 
his first administration. He was warned of the 
result by the advisers whom he trusted most, but 
that produced no effect whatever upon him. 

Whether one agrees with his views or not, it is 
impossible not to find inspiration in the example of 
the man who would not wait for a safe reelection 
to do what he believed to be right. 

With high and unquestioning courage he stood 
always for what he believed to be just and honest 
and best for his country. With unconcealed scorn 

[51] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

and wrath he stood against all sham and chican- 
ery. 

He was not swayed by personal ambition or by 
selfishness. He thought always of his work and 
not of himself. 

He was simple and unostentatious in his Hving. 
He had no thirst for riches. 

He was sincere and outspoken, without the craft 
of the time-server or the false pretense of the dema- 
gogue. 

He was kindly and affectionate — a good husband 
and father and friend and neighbor. 

He remembered always with touching interest 
the undistinguished companions and scenes of his 
youth. Great station raised no barriers about his 
heart. He was loyal to his friends and to his ideals 
and to every cause in which he had enlisted. 

For a quarter of a century after he was raised to 
power, in office and out of office he stood conspicu- 
ous before the world, a great figure of exalted citi- 
zenship, an evidence to all the young men of Amer- 
ica that in this free republic the greatest success, 
high station, power, fame, can be won with truth, 
honor, and self-respect. 

To honor him is to be lifted up in spirit, to re- 
member him is to be grateful for our country's 
happy fortune and to be possessed of a cheerful 
hope for the future of a people that can bring forth 
such sons. 



[52] 



The Chairman then presented the Hon. George 
Gray, Circuit Judge of the United States. 



JUDGE GRAY 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I deem it a privilege to participate in this demon- 
stration. It was a saying of a great Athenian phi- 
losopher that the character of the city is determined 
by the character of the men it crowns, and we need 
not to despair of a public whose people delight to 
acclaim the public life and character of such a man 
as Grover Cleveland. These meetings of to-day 
bear witness that the higher ideals of citizenship, of 
public service and social duty, have not departed 
from among us. The things that best characterized 
Mr. Cleveland's administrations are those which 
make for the honor of our national life, the eleva- 
tion of our citizenship to higher planes of thought 
and action, and for the stability of our institutions. 
It is a good thing in fitting phrase to laud the per- 
formance of duty in exalted station ; it is better still 
to give living example to conscientious and cou- 
rageous devotion to it, such as all men now perceive 
that Mr. Cleveland gave and exhibited in every 
grade of the public service, from the lowest to the 
highest to which he was called. 

I rejoice to-day, as an American citizen, that the 
[53] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

influence of his example is felt throughout the 
length and breadth of this dear land of ours, 
strengthening and uplifting the hearts of our coun- 
trymen with increased hope for the future and 
deepened reverence for the past. Now that the ob- 
scuring mists, engendered by party strife, have in 
large measure faded away, we can look back on Mr. 
Cleveland's two administrations through a clearer 
atmosphere, and recognize, as Americans and not 
as partizans, that he stood, with all the sincerity 
and strength of his nature, for those of his country- 
men (let us hope the great majority of his country- 
men to-day) who cherish the great traditions of the 
past, and those ideals which make for justice and 
civic righteousness. Strong administrations have 
signalized themselves along the track of the almost 
century and a quarter of our past history, and I 
hazard nothing in the statement that Mr. Cleveland's 
two administrations will in the future be classed 
among the strongest of these. They were strong 
by reason of his single-hearted devotion to the prin- 
ciples which he believed lay at the foundation of our 
free institutions, the sincerity of his character, and 
the uncompromising courage which he brought to 
the performance of every public service. He was 
instinct with the love of the equal opportunities 
guaranteed to all by our State and Federal consti- 
tutions, and rejoiced in the equality of all men be- 
fore the law; that none was so humble as to be 
beneath its protection, or so high as to be beyond 
its control. His faith in these fundamental prin- 

[54] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

ciples was unswerving and vital, and was illustrated 
in his simple, unostentatious, official and private 
life. 

There were grave crises in public affairs during 
his administrations, the dealing with which required 
high statesmanship, patriotism, and decision of 
character— questions which appealed to and excited 
the passions of large numbers of our people, and as 
to which public opinion was unsettled and disorgan- 
ized, threatening the tranquillity of our country. 
His high official position gave him the opportunity 
of leadership and command, which, if he had failed 
in exercising, or had assumed with timidity and 
vacillation, could not have resulted otherwise than 
disastrously to our moral and material interests. 
But, fortunately, timidity and vacillation had no 
place in the make-up of JNIr. Cleveland's character. 
He met the demands made upon him with the wis- 
dom and firmness born of his sense of justice and his 
faith in the moral law. The high character and 
courage displayed in his leadership controlled the 
situation. Public opinion steadied itself, and we 
were saved from the perils and difficulties of an 
unstable standard of value and disordered finance 
largely by his clear perception of, and fearless de- 
votion to, duty, as it was given to him to see it— a 
devotion to duty practised at no small cost of tem- 
porarily disrupted friendships and party ties. 

He grasped the national powers conferred by 
the Constitution on the Federal Government with 
a firm hand, and wielded them fearlessly for the 

[55] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

preservation of the peace, honor, and safety of the 
repubhe. It was with equal promptitude and cour- 
age that he demanded of Great Britain that she deal 
justly with a weak and erring sister republic of this 
hemisphere, and insisted that the combinations of 
misguided men, who were inaugurating a reign of 
terror in the great metropolis of the West, should 
submit themselves to the law. 

The clear, strong sense of duty which permeated 
his own life and conduct is beautifully portrayed in 
the few and simple words he applied to his friend 
and Secretary of State in his first administration, 
in a memorial address wi'itten just before his last 
sickness: "Duty was the word of command which, 
during all his life enlistment, he never failed to hear 
nor to unquestionably obey. It dominated his affec- 
tions and impulses, and gave imperative direction to 
his thought and endeavor." That this was the key- 
note of his eulogy of his distinguished friend gives 
us an impressive word-picture of the man who 
uttered it, and we can see, in the thought that in- 
spired it, his own self -consecration to duty, and how 
every selfish interest was subordinated to, and every 
less worthy motive dominated by, its controlling 
power. The now well-known phrase in which he 
simply and naturally expressed his all-pein^ading 
thought, that came almost unbidden to his lips, that 
"Public office is a public trust," has become, thanks 
to him, one of the commonplaces of our speech, 
which, like the precepts of the moral law, have 
served to crystallize the moral sense of the people 

[56] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

into an imperative rule of conduct. His sense of 
justice was clear, strong, and dominant, and he 
rarely failed, in his public utterances, to impress 
others with the justness of the ends he had in view, 
and with the sincerity and honest purpose with 
wliich they were pursued. If the inevitable influ- 
ence of party spirit at the time prevented wider 
recognition of this, the recognition, though tardy, 
has at last come to Mr. Cleveland, as it has to others 
who have "wrought in sad sincerity" for noble ends. 
Mr. Cleveland doubtless loved the applause of his 
fellow-citizens, but it was the applause that follows, 
not that which is sought after. His strength of 
character enabled him to reconcile himself to the 
withdrawal of the sympathy and support of those 
from whom he had the right to expect both, and 
content himself with the joy that comes from loyal 
adhesion to conscientious convictions. I have spoken 
of his abiding faith in the moral law, as well as of 
his sense of justice, and I cannot refrain from quot- 
ing a single sentence, in illustration of both, taken 
from a message to Congress in which he earnestly 
pleaded that no present advantage should obscure 
the moral sense of the nation in its international 
affairs. "I mistake," he said, "the American people 
if they favor the odious doctrine that there is no such 
thing as international morality, that there is one 
law for a strong nation and another for a weak one, 
and that, even by indirection, a strong power may 
with impunity despoil a weak one of its territory." 
I would not be thought to mean that these great 
[57] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

qualities illustrated in Mr. Cleveland's public life 
are rare among our countrymen. God forbid! 
There were brave men before Agamemnon, as there 
were brave men after him. But, speaking with that 
moderation of statement which Mr. Cleveland him- 
self loved, it is safe to say that, among the public 
men of this country who have combined all, or a 
part of, the great qualities I have so imperfectly 
attempted to portray, Mr. Cleveland must ever 
stand conspicuous. 

His reputation is in the keeping of his country- 
men, and his name will assuredly be added to the 
bead-roll of those who "have done the State some 
service," and have best illustrated in their lives the 
highest qualities of the race from which they sprang. 
"Rich in saving common sense," clear in his percep- 
tion of duty, and with perfect courage in its per- 
formance, he stands as a type of that true Ameri- 
canism which holds that moral obligations rest no 
less on nations than they do on individual men, an 
Americanism which is not truculent, aggressive, or 
boastful, but strong in its own self-respect, which 
demands nothing that it is not willing in reverse 
circumstances to concede, and will submit to no in- 
vasion of its just rights, as it will do no wrong to 
the rights of others; an Americanism that has cre- 
ated an honest, straightforward diplomacy that has 
helped to raise the moral standards of the world, 
and had made us a world power before Dewey's 
guns had waked the echoes of the Orient. He stood 
for the hearty and thorough recognition, by all who 

[58] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

were intrusted to any extent with the administration 
of the Federal Government, of the limitations upon 
the powers conferred by the Constitution ; that pow- 
ers not granted were withheld in the hands of the 
people, and that no authority but their will, ex- 
pressed in the mode themselves have pointed out in 
the Constitution, could justify the addition to or 
enlargement of the powers they had granted. He 
invoked no doctrine of inherent sovereignty, by 
which to magnify and aggrandize the sphere of the 
general government, at the expense of those rights 
of local self-government reserved to the States. In 
the plain meaning of the language of the Constitu- 
tion, he found expression of the people's sovereign 
will, and obedience to it was the supreme and re- 
hgious duty he felt to be imposed upon him, and 
upon all who shared in the administration of gov- 
ernment. To him, and such as he, it was the sacred 
charter of individual Hberty, a liberty safeguarded 
by its limitations, as well as by its granted powers, 
and he beheved that our constitutional government 
owes its strength not less to its limitations than to 
its powers. 

Whether we as a people vnW continue to regard 
and maintain the restraints ourselves have placed 
on the exercise of governmental power, is the mo- 
mentous question of to-day— whether a majority, 
held in restraint by constitutional checks and limita- 
tions, to use Mr. Lincoln's phrase, is to remain our 
ideal of free government, and the only true sover- 
eign of a free people. Our highest hopes for the 

[59] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

right solution of these questions have been strength- 
ened by ]Mr. Cleveland's teaching and example. 

It is thus only the priceless heritage of the indi- 
vidual liberty our fathers loved can be preserved, 
and the tyranny they hated can be avoided. And 
so, to repeat what I have said on a former occasion, 
we find that individual liberty is guarded by the 
most positive sanctions of our organic law, and these 
are the outgrowth of the spirit from which came the 
Declaration of Independence, that spirit which finds 
expression in the sententious phrase which flowed 
from the same pen that drafted its immortal lines, 
"Equal rights to all, special privileges to none." 
These are not the recondite doctrines of a complex 
code of laws, to be dug out by lawyers and only un- 
derstood by learned men. They are the practical, 
every-day muniments of our liberty. They are what 
have been called "fireside rights," which you and I 
must understand and value at their full worth, and 
must be ready to defend and fight for, if need be, 
that we may transmit them unimpaired to our pos- 
terity, as we have received them from our fathers. 

We sometimes say our governments, State and 
national, are governments of majorities, and so in 
a broad sense they are. But the power of majorities 
is a limited power; limited by reason of the teach- 
ings and experience of the past, which had not been 
lost on the men who settled upon these shores. Ab- 
solutism found no place in our institutions of gov- 
ernment. Absolutism is tyranny, whether it be 
that of a monarchy or a democracy, and tjrranny 

[60] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

is as hateful to-day as it was to the fathers a century 
ago. We do not hold, you and I, our rights to per- 
sonal liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness 
by so frail a tenure as that of the capricious and 
changing mood of a majority. No; they rest on 
institutional freedom, on the checks and inhibitions 
of our organic law — that law of the land which does 
not reflect the mere volatile humors and passions of 
the hour, but the settled, sober public opinion — that 
public opinion which is formed in the crucible of 
free discussion, and which is the outgrowth of our 
progressive civilization, safeguarding the activities 
of a free democracy, whose vital breath is personal 
and individual liberty. 

It is individual liberty — not class liberty, not cor- 
poration liberty, not guild or society liberty — that 
our fathers fought for and established on this great 
continent. Nol It was the right to your home; 
the right to go and come as you please; the right 
to worship God according to the dictates of your 
own conscience; the right to work or not to work, 
and the right to be exempt from interference by 
others in the enjoyment of those rights; the right 
to be exempt from the t5rranny of one man or of 
many ; the right to so live that no man or set of men 
shall work his or their will on you against your con- 
sent. This is liberty worth Uving for ! It is liberty 
worth dying for! And it was this blessed inheri- 
tance that has come to us from the fathers, and 
which means to us all that it meant to them. While 
it is maintained, all things are possible that tend to 

[61] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

the expansion, the development, prosperity, and 
glory of our common comitry. God grant that this 
liberty may live forever among us! That is what 
our flag means to us, and that, as it floats over the 
land and over the sea, is the message that it delivers 
to all the toiling millions of other lands. 

But, fellow-citizens, this liberty cannot live unless 
it lives in the lives and characters of those who 
to-day enjoy it. It is not something that comes 
from the outside to us, as a boon to be enjoyed or 
thrown aside, as caprice or indifference may sug- 
gest. It can only exist by being cherished in the 
hearts and lives of each generation. Our free 
institutions depend on the courage, the faith, the 
honor, and the intelligence of our people. Unless 
your hearts and mine are full of the love of that 
same liberty, regulated by law, which has made us 
free in the past, these glorious institutions, and all 
that our flag symbolizes, will decay and fall, and our 
prosperity and happiness and hopes for the future 
will be involved in a common ruin. It is not foreign 
foes that we have need to fear, but the insidious 
enemies who seek to poison the minds and alienate 
the affections of our people from their ancient faith, 
who would undermine the foundations of a Hberty 
regulated by law, with the vain hope that the petty 
tyranny of a class or corporation, or of a society, to 
which individual liberty and individual conscience 
are to be subordinated, can achieve the lasting hap- 
piness of those whose minds and character it has 
weakened or destroyed. 

[62] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

This was the hberty dear to Mr. Cleveland's 
heart, and which he zealously and anxiously sought 
to defend, and we would be unfortunate indeed if 
we had reason to believe, as we have not, that that 
liberty was undervalued by those who succeeded 
him in his great office, or by those who hereafter 
shall hold the same high position. Mr. Cleveland 
had no sympathy, and little patience, with those 
who, in times of adversity and stress, preach the 
gospel of discontent, and seek thereby to alienate 
the hearts and minds of any portion of his country- 
men from their love of our institutions, and from 
belief in their beneficence — that far too numerous 
class who, ignoring all counsels of manly courage 
and hopefulness, and appealing only to the meaner 
passions of our nature, envy, class hatred, and all 
uncharitableness, make the paralysis of hard times 
the stalking-horse of their selfish ambition. To use 
his own language, "those enlisted in this crusade of 
discontent and passion, proclaiming themselves the 
friends of the people, exclude from that list all their 
countrymen, except those most unfortunate or un- 
reasonable, and those whom they themselves had 
made the most discontented and credulous." He 
beheved, with all the intensity of his nature, in 
liberty regulated by law, a hberty which is not 
anarchy, and a law which is not despotism; and so, 
with the unfaltering faith and the unquestioning 
courage that he brought to the performance of 
every duty of his life, he stood as a "tower of 
strength, foursquare to all the winds that blew.'* 

[63] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

He has left his great name and the inspiration of 
his great example to his country, and we rest secure 
in the assurance that "whatever record leap to life, 
he never shall be shamed." 



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cr-)~i'i^'&'^'cr^'-/^<~r. 



The Chairman then presented Mr. WiUiam B. 
Hornblower. 

MR. HORNBLOWER 

After the addresses we have hstened to from the 
distinguished speakers who have preceded me, on 
the character and career of Grover Cleveland, I 
shall add only a few words as a personal tribute 
from one who was a friend and a political adherent 
throughout his public life. 

It was my good fortune to meet Mr. Cleveland 
before he became JNIayor of Buffalo, to have seen 
much of him when he returned to private life at 
the expiration of his first term as President, and 
again to have met him from time to time after his 
second term as President, in his quiet home at 
Princeton. 

His life was full of remarkable vicissitudes of 
fortune. Through all those vicissitudes he remained 
the same quiet, unassuming, and steadfast man. 
Success did not turn his head or make him arrogant ; 
temporary defeat did not sour or embitter him. The 
son of a Presbyterian minister, brought up on the 
precepts of the Bible, there was much of the vigor 
of the Puritan in his moral make-up, which was 
shown by his unswerving devotion to duty; there 
was much of the Hebrew prophet, which compelled 
him to "speak out and spare not." Without the 

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THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

glamour of military glory, or the eloquence of im- 
passioned oratory, or the arts of the scheming poli- 
tician, his success was due to solid worth and force 
of character. And with what a magnificent con- 
tempt he regarded the demagogue, the time-server, 
and the trimmer ! 

The two conspicuous characteristics which 
marked Mr. Cleveland in the eyes of his contem- 
poraries were his indomitable courage and his abso- 
lute devotion to duty. By these two characteristics 
he was known and judged or misjudged by the men 
of his own generation. Strong of will and sturdy 
of purpose, amid good report and bad report, in 
carrying out the right as he saw it, unswerving and 
inflexible in the teeth of bitterest denunciation and 
fiercest criticism — such was Grover Cleveland as 
men knew him. 

Forceful, virile, unyielding — such was the Grover 
Cleveland of public life. 

Underneath this outer man, however, there was 
another Grover Cleveland, quite unknown to the 
public, and even unsuspected, the modest, gentle, 
kindly, sympathetic Grover Cleveland of private 
life. Of this Grover Cleveland this is not the place 
nor the time to speak. 

His character was an inspiration to the young 
men of my generation who were coming to maturity 
at the time of his first election. Here was a leader 
whose leadership meant something, who stood for 
principle, not expediency, and whom we could fol- 
low with enthusiasni and hope. There were those, 

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THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

of course, who did not agree with the poHcies for 
which he stood, yet even those recognized and ad- 
mired the outspoken, fearless, and disinterested 
manner in which he fought for these pohcies, accept- 
ing defeat when it came and victory when it came 
with the same calm and steadfast mind. 

His yea was yea and his nay was nay, and no one 
could misunderstand the yea or the nay. Some 
might think him ^\Tong in his opinions, but not one 
could think him insincere or uncertain. 

Twice in his political career he risked the Presi- 
dency by the outspoken and emphatic expression of 
opinions— once on the tariff, in 1888; the second 
time on the silver question, in 1892 — when he might 
without impropriety have kept silent. The first 
time he lost the office. The second time he gained 
it. But whether he lost it or gained it, he wished the 
people to understand clearly what he stood for, and 
to elect or defeat him accordingly. 

It was my privilege to see much of ^Ir. Cleveland 
during the four years that he spent in this city be- 
tween his two official terms, in the practice of his 
profession. The one thing that impressed me most 
about him was the absolute sincerity of his charac- 
ter. I never met a man who seemed so utterly free 
from the slightest trace of self -consciousness or of 
guile. What he meant he said, and what he said 
he meant. There was no mistaking his meaning, 
and there was no room for doubt as to his straight- 
forwardness. He could not deal in nicely balanced 
phrases or ambiguous expressions of opinion. 

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THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

There never was a man to whom the holding of 
pubhc office was less of an object to be sought for 
for its own sake. To him the honor of the office was 
so greatly outweighed by the sense of responsibility 
that the burden was far greater than the pleasure. 
Especially was this so when called upon for the sec- 
ond time by the overwhelming mandate of the peo- 
ple in 1892 to assume the Presidency. He had 
already held the office for four years and knew full 
well its cares and its anxieties. He had had four 
years of the congenial labor and pleasure of pro- 
fessional and private life in which to reflect upon 
the four years of work, worry, and responsibility of 
public affairs. There was no glamour to him about 
the high office of the Presidency. There were no 
illusions to him about the resumption of that office. 
He knew full well that he was entering upon four 
years of bitter strife and turmoil. He knew that he 
would be obliged to contend not only with fierce 
opposition from the Republican party on the tariff 
question, but with still fiercer and bitterer opposi- 
tion from within his own party on the silver ques- 
tion. On both of these questions his views were 
firmly settled and frequently and most emphatically 
announced. In many conversations which I had 
with him after his reelection in 1892, I was struck 
by the solemn sense of duty which animated him in 
looking forward to his new term. 

There was none of the elation of victory — a vic- 
tory won by the popular will and against the wishes 
of the politicians — a victory which might well have 

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THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

turned the head of a smaller, a vainer, or a weaker 
man. There was none of the gaudium certaminis 
leading him to look forward with exultation to the 
conflict with the political adversaries whom he was 
to encounter. There was simply the solemn sense 
of duty to his country, and loyalty to his principles, 
and the firm resolve to be true to his conscience, 
whatever might betide him personally. 

I first saw Mr. Cleveland in the summer of 1879, 
when he was a practising lawyer in Buffalo. He 
was sitting at his desk in his office, hard at work in 
his shirt-sleeves, on a hot July day. I was then a 
young lawyer just starting in my professional work. 
I had occasion to go to Buffalo on behalf of some 
New York clients to look after some important liti- 
gation against a prominent citizen of Buffalo. 
Having occasion to select a referee to try one of 
the branches of the litigation, I made inquiry of 
Buffalo lawyers as to the selection. All of whom I 
inquired agreed unanimously in recommending 
Grover Cleveland as the best man to act as referee 
in this particular case — as a sound lawyer and a man 
of courageous independence and impartiality, who 
could be relied upon to decide without fear or favor, 
however influential or locally powerful the defen- 
dant might be. After Mr. Cleveland had become 
President, the idea was sedulously fostered by his 
political opponents and generally accepted even by 
his political supporters that Mr. Cleveland was not a 
man of any prominence at the bar, but had achieved 
success only in public office. This is an entirely 

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THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

erroneous idea. The fact is that for a number of 
years before he was elected Mayor of Buffalo he 
was a very active and very successful lawyer, recog- 
nized ( as I have been repeatedly assured by Buffalo 
lawy^ers) as one of the first half-dozen of the leading 
men at the bar of that city, at a time when that bar 
stood exceptionally high in character, ability, and 
attainments. It was because of his well-known in- 
tegrity and professional ability that he was selected 
as Democratic candidate for Mayor, entirely with- 
out his own seeking and against his own wishes, and 
was elected by the votes of independent Republi- 
cans. Thus began the remarkable public career 
which was to result in making him Governor of the 
State of New York and twice President of the 
United States. 

I little thought when I saw ^Ir. Cleveland for the 
first time— hard at work in his law office in Buffalo 
—that within six years that quiet, modest, unassum- 
ing man would be President of the United States. 

Yet his career was no freak of chance or accident. 
It was simply the result of his inborn capacity for 
doing his duty honestly and courageously and his 
absolute indifference to the personal consequences 
to himself. Each step upward was based upon the 
confidence inspired in the public mind by the faith- 
ful and fearless discharge of his duties in the lower 
sphere of public office. He never was a wire-puller 
or an intriguer. He could not have been had he 
wished to be. He was not built on those lines. 

I well remember a conversation I had with him 

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THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

in the White House just before his retirement to 
private life in 1889. He was speaking of his tariff 
message of the previous year. He said: "I was told 
that that message was unnecessary and unwise, that 
it would lead to my defeat, that all I had to do was 
to keep silent and I would be reelected. Well, that 
may be, but I felt it would not be honest or fair to 
the people. And, after all, I have one consolation, 
it was right." That was the key-note of his entire 
public career. To be right as he saw the right, and 
to speak out for the right as he saw it, was his one 
principle of conduct. 

He felt that he was not responsible for the result. 
If the majority of the people did not think he was 
right, he would cheerfully bow to their verdict ; but 
to win their approval by concealing his own con- 
victions was, he felt, to be untrue to his duty as a 
public servant. 

To-day even those of his fellow-citizens who think 
he was wrong in his views on the tariff or in his views 
on the silver question recognize and admire the high 
courage and the noble disinterestedness of his loy- 
alty to his own convictions. 

I may be pardoned for one other personal remi- 
niscence of Mr. Cleveland. It was on one of the 
few occasions when I saw him in the White House 
during his second administration. He was borne 
down by the burden of his responsibilities and his 
cares. He was smarting under the fierce invectives 
of his political adversaries within and without his 
party. He said to me with a tremor in his voice: 

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THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

"My only object is to uphold the public credit, to 
prevent what I regard as a national catastrophe. I 
am not trying to play politics or to fight for or 
against my party. I may be wrong in my views, 
but I believe I am right. Whatever may be said or 
thought of me now, some day the people will realize 
that I tried to do my duty." 

That time has arrived. Over the grave of Grover 
Cleveland all men now agree that he tried to do his 
duty; that he did it loyally, courageously, stead- 
fastly ; that he was a true patriot, a great President, 
a noble American. 



[72] 



The Chairman then presented the Rev. Father 
Quinn, S.J. 



THE REV. FATHER QUINN, S.J. 

The surroundings in which we find ourselves this 
evening, assembled as we are in the Great Hall of 
the great college of the great city of New York to 
honor the memory of a great American, Grover 
Cleveland, one time President of these United 
States, naturally suggest the thought to one of my 
profession and to every one engaged in the sacred 
work of education that Mr. Cleveland was just the 
kind of a man the colleges of the country are striv- 
ing to produce and give to the world. 

In the presence of the distinguished gentlemen 
seated on the stage here this evening who knew Mr. 
Cleveland intimately, and after the excellent 
speeches you have already listened to with evident 
pleasure and approbation, it ill befits me to venture 
upon an exhaustive and accurate estimate of his life 
and his life's work. Yet I may claim the right, 
which is my heritage as a native-born New Yorker 
who loves his native city, who loves his native State, 
who loves his native country, with an ardor that is 

[73] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

second to no one else's in enthusiasm, to pass an 
honest judgment on the character of one of our 
pubhc officials. If I may be permitted, therefore, 
to sum up all that has hitherto been said and at the 
same time express my own estimate of a man whose 
public career has always been a subject of deepest 
interest to me, I would say that Grover Cleveland 
was a man of clear mind, firm will, clean conscience, 
great heart, strong hand, direct speech, and simple 
manners. 

What college is there in the land that would not 
be proud to claim such a man as one of her favorite 
sons ? Yet no college may claim him, for Mr. Cleve- 
land did not have the advantages of a college train- 
ing. The short-sighted and narrow-minded among 
us might argue from this fact that a college educa- 
tion is not only unnecessary, but even useless for 
the right conduct of public affairs. But Mr. Cleve- 
land was too broad-minded and too logical to come 
to any such conclusion. His views were quite the 
contrary. We have them on record. 

Following the example of his predecessors in 
the White House, Mr. Cleveland, while President 
of the United States, attended the commencement 
exercises at Georgetown University. He was asked 
to make a few remarks. Addressing himself directly 
to the student body, he spoke in that simple, direct, 
earnest manner so characteristic of him, and left an 
impression that will never be effaced. He reminded 
the young men before him of the splendid opportu- 
nities within their reach for a training which would 

[74] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

fit them well for grasping, analyzing, and deciding 
to the satisfaction of all honest critics, however se- 
vere they might be, the important questions that are 
constantly confronting us in our civil hfe. He ear- 
nestly urged them to avail themselves of these op- 
portunities. He sincerely lamented that he had not 
had the advantages of a college education, and 
frankly confessed that for lack of it he had been 
handicapped in his public life and had often labored 
under a stress to which he would not have been sub- 
jected had he been as fortunate as they in the cir- 
cumstances of his early life. He went a step further 
and urged them to submit their hearts as well as 
their minds to careful training. He told them of 
the necessity of building up their moral life on prin- 
ciples that were deep-rooted in the Eternal Law, if 
they would be men true to duty's call. He favored 
true culture of mind and will and heart, a harmoni- 
ous development of the whole man, an all-round 
training for the work of life. 

Such were tlie views of Mr. Cleveland, and as he 
belongs to no particular college, all the colleges may 
claim him because of the deep and broad sympathy 
he felt for the work they are striving to do for God 
and country. Hence I may make so bold as to lay 
a tribute of praise from the colleges of the college 
world on the grave of Grover Cleveland to-night. 
And college officials may tell their young men, if 
you wish for a type of a strong, masculine, rugged 
American who has lived in our times and has worked 
under the same circumstances in which you are now 

[75] 



THE CLEVELAND MEMORIAL 

placed, look to Grover Cleveland, take him for your 
model, and imitate his noble example. 

The exercises then closed with a brief address from 
the Governor of New York, of which, unfortu- 
nately, no record was kept. 



[76] 



